Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

StephandMike Posted: Jan 27, 2011 06:30 PM

Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

i know its early to worry about this but my fiance and i were going over our guest list.

our guarantee is 150. our 'A' list is 178 but with our 'B list' included it is 200.

i have heard that 15% to 20% of who you invite do not come so now the question is....

(and keep in mind my fiance and i are paying for our wedding ourselves)

is it better to come in a little under our guarantee # and still have to pay for the 150 we guaranteed (since we know how much $ that will be)?

or

is it better to invite more people in the hopes of getting to our guarantee but also maybe going a little (ok maybe 15 or 20 people) over our guarantee and have to pay who knows how much more $?

Watermelon5 Posted: Jan 27, 2011 06:44 PM

Re: Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

idk it really depends on how tight your budget is, you dont want to find yourself in a position where you are screwed! we are thinking of sending our invites out in 'rounds' lol. we have A LOT of OOT guests (my fathers entire family is out of state as well as some of my mothers) so we are going to send those out probably a month before the others just so that we can get an idea of how many of them are going to RSVP YES!!!! If most of them say YES, then we will drop some B listers. If we get a lot of NO's then we can add them. I know it is kind of messed up but we cant afford to invite EVERYONE (even though we wld love to - we are paying ourselves!). If you do this just be sure that your 1st round invitees aren't in the same circle as the B listers lol HTH! I feel your pain!

HSsweethearts Posted: Jan 27, 2011 06:48 PM

Re: Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

I would personally rather pay for a few extra people to celebrate with us than for empty seats

But you also have to consdier that extra people means not only extra plates but also extra centerpieces, favors, programs, invitations, postage, etc etc. It definitely all adds up!

HSsweethearts Posted: Jan 27, 2011 06:51 PM

Re: Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

ETA on our excel sheet we included a column of whether or not we thought people would come so we got a more realistic count of what our yield would look like based on our guest list. We're inviing like 230, which I think is actually not bad for our 180 minimum because a lot of FH's family is OOT and it's a Sunday and a holiday, so I think a lot of work people and obligation invites won't show.

StephandMike Posted: Jan 27, 2011 06:55 PM

Re: Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

yea ours is thursday of memorial day weekend so that is also why we are worried about this already...

dpanzarino Posted: Jan 27, 2011 06:55 PM

Re: Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

Posted by HSsweethearts

I would personally rather pay for a few extra people to celebrate with us than for empty seats

But you also have to consdier that extra people means not only extra plates but also extra centerpieces, favors, programs, invitations, postage, etc etc. It definitely all adds up!

I completely agree about paying for empty seats.

Your second argument is how I got my FH to cut the 50 children from the guest list. I explained all the extra costs with centerpieces and seat covers and such.

StephanieJoy Posted: Jan 27, 2011 07:14 PM

Re: Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

send to those on your a list that may say no. wait for the response thenb go to your b list

dont forget the cost of feeding vendors too

angel716 Posted: Jan 27, 2011 07:34 PM

Re: Guest List AAAAAAHHHHH

If you can afford to pay for them (and all that goes with it) invite all of them. Most halls will allow you to use your vendors to fill spaces if you come in short of your min.